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Campus, not athletic department, will be responsible for paying for $20-$25 million addition

By Kyle Ringo, BuffZone.com Writer

Posted:
05/20/2014 01:05:26 PM MDT

University of Colorado President Bruce Benson speaks at ceremony May 12 announcing that CU is proceeding with its $143 million athletics facilities expansion in and around Folsom Field. The University is hoping to add a 600-spot parking garage to the project. (MARK LEFFINGWELL / Daily Camera)

University of Colorado administrators plan to ask the Board of Regents next month to approve the addition of an underground parking garage to the $143 million facilities project at Folsom Field, the Daily Camera confirmed Tuesday.

The garage would be located beneath the new indoor practice facility on the east side of the stadium and would include approximately 600 parking spaces.

CU spokesman Ryan Huff said the estimated cost of the garage is $20 million to $25 million, which would be paid for through parking revenue.

CU athletics, which has started work on its portion of the project despite not reaching the previous one-third of funds raised threshold of $47.6 million, would not be responsible for paying for the parking garage.

Huff said it hasn't been determined how the garage initially would be funded, but previously the campus has built parking garages through bonds that are paid off over 25 years or more. A recent example is the Center for Community garage.

On most days, the garage would be available to CU faculty, staff, students and visitors. It would be a convenient place for fans to park on game days as well and it would be available for groups who choose to use Folsom Field for large gatherings on non-game days.

"We really haven't put together a comprehensive package of exactly what this will look like," Huff said. "Part of the reason is while we will put together a plan to present to the Board of Regents, until they approve it, we can't get too involved in what this will look like."

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The idea of a parking garage being part of the Folsom Field project is not new.

Former athletic director Mike Bohn talked about the possibility of adding a garage when he first proposed the project to the regents in February 2013.

Current athletic director Rick George has made some significant changes to Bohn's original plan, including changing the location of the indoor practice facility from north of Boulder Creek to immediately adjacent to the stadium on the east side.

CU currently has 11,000 total parking spots available when east campus and south campus areas are included. But the athletics project will reconfigure Stadium Drive and combining that change with spots being taken up east of the Regent AutoPark due to the relocation of the recycling and grounds facilities, about 300 parking spots near the stadium will be taken away.

Adding the garage would be a net gain of about 300 spots, Huff said.

Huff said with a new campus architect and new interim vice chancellor for administration, the idea was only proposed in recent months, which is why it wasn't initially part of the proposal the regents approved in December.

Huff said adding a garage to the project will not significantly impact the timeline for completion because of the sequencing of the project. Construction of the practice facility was not expected to begin until next winter or early spring.

"We have to think long-term," Huff said. "We have to think decades down the road and as more buildings are built on our campus, sometimes parking goes away because we sometimes have to build on top of parking lots.

"So you have to look for spaces you can take advantage of without taking up additional acreage. So when this idea presented itself of being able to build underground and not take up additional acreage and be able to add hundreds of spaces, it seemed like a wise opportunity to pursue."

Crews already have begun demolition of the northeast corner of the stadium's lower bowl and adjacent areas outside the stadium and excavation for the first sequence of the project will begin shortly after the 36th running of the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day.

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